November 13, 2024 • 73 mins
Our human lives predestined? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Teddy's reflections on his upbringing and his transition from pursuing baseball in Florida to serving in the Gulf War offer profound insights into the unpredictability of life’s journey and the role of divine intervention.
Teddy shares candid insights from his military service, including the moral and psychological toll of deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He delves into the existential questions surrounding belief, faith, and the often harsh realities of serving in the Marine Corps. This episode also tackles broader political issues, including immigration and national security, as seen through Teddy's experiences and personal convictions. We discuss the importance of voting and political engagement, advocating for leaders who prioritize the well-being of all citizens, especially veterans.
Teddy's personal journey of mental health recovery takes center stage as he opens up about the challenges faced after his military service. From a pivotal moment in 2016 to exploring innovative treatments in Mexico, Teddy's story is one of resilience and transformation. He champions the cause of mental health awareness, urging listeners to support First Coast Heroes Outreach that provide vital resources for veterans. This conversation is a heartfelt examination of personal growth, societal responsibilities, and the quest for a more compassionate world.
https://heroesoutreach.org/
@heroes_outreach
Founder: Teddy Colegate
A 501C3 to combat the mental health struggles which come with service to the United States
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're back with the Daily American.
Just want to welcome to theshow Mr Teddy Colgate.
Teddy, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, thanks.
Thanks for having me, Dan.
It's good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Absolutely, teddy.
So you know, obviously we'restrangers to each other.
Besides the pretty awesome, youknow we had a nice little
10-minute conversation about our.
You know just what's going onin our lives and stuff.
But go ahead and kick us offwith you.
Know your childhood a bit andwhere you were born.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, so I was born in Hamilton, ohio, and you know
my folks have both sides of myparents lived in that area, some
in Indiana, some in Ohio, andit was a small-town America
living, you know, and I enjoyedbeing outside, being on the farm
, running around with no shoes,on things like that, and some of
(00:51):
my fondest memories are beingoutside in the dirt just working
for my family.
Seven and my dad moved to Ohioand my mom stayed in Indiana,
but it was about seven, seven,10 miles apart, you know.
So I was the typical everyother weekend, uh, kid, where
(01:15):
you cross the border and uhspent, uh, spent your weekend
with your folks, uh, that youdidn't live with.
So you know it was, uh, it wasa much simpler time back then, I
think, and especially for meand the neighborhood.
There was no street light,there was no stop sign, it was
(01:36):
one road that went throughDrewsburg, indiana and, yeah, it
was country living at itsfinest.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
It sounds like a peaceful time in your life.
What about high school sportsor anything?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, so growing up I played five sports and I have
in seventh and eighth grade myjunior high years I played
football and I wrestled, Iplayed basketball, ran track and
then I played baseball.
So it was nonstop.
My mom would work three jobssometimes, you know, waitressing
(02:12):
and cutting hair and thingslike that, to make sure I had
all the equipment I needed.
And yeah, it was good.
And then my freshman year ofhigh school I moved down to
Florida from Indiana to playbaseball year round.
My mom just kind of said, youknow what, let's give it a shot.
And I was all for it, of course.
And so I went to high school inSt Petersburg, florida, wow.
(02:34):
And then you know things happenwhen there's a thousand.
You know recruits out there andthings like that.
So I didn't pan out.
You know recruits out there andthings like that.
So didn't, didn't pan out, hadsome issues in high school and
just didn't really care for forschool in general and ended up
joining the Marine Corps afterattending a bonus I'll call it a
(02:58):
bonus semester of high school,because I had gotten in trouble
my junior year and lost a wholesemester for drinking at the
prom.
So you know lessons learned.
But you know, I mean lookingback.
It's like critical moments inyour life that shape you and
(03:20):
it's one of those things.
That is definitely one of themthat really got me and I
wouldn't be here today.
I don't think my path wouldn'thave taken the path it took had
that not happened, because Iwent down to the Marine
recruiter and just said you know, here we go.
And he told me, and heconvinced me that I had to go
(03:42):
back to school because I wasconvinced that, you know, I'll
just get a GED and, you know, goon about my life.
And he's like, no, we don't dothat anymore.
So he convinced me to go backand get my high school diploma
and then, as soon as that wasdone, I went to recruit training
in Parris Island and off wewent, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So I have no idea my question is you know how you
mentioned that you're, that thatwas a big time, like a moment
in your life.
Do you think that that this is,this is just an off the wall uh
question?
But are you, do you think thatwe are in charge of, of
basically our destiny and ourfate in regards to, like, uh,
(04:22):
you know that that scenario, oris you know God up there just
pulling the strings and nomatter what we try to do?
We can try to run off on ourown beaten path, but he's going
to string us back in.
What do you?
What do you personally think onthat?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, I think that there's definitely a pathway
that's already built for us andas human beings we get in the
way of that higher plan andGod's plan.
I think he has the card that assoon as you're born or maybe
even conceive that you have thatpathway and the left and rights
(05:00):
and the circles, theroundabouts, if you will, that
you kind of go through in life.
I think that's us getting inour own way and not submitting,
you know, to the plan that'slaid out in front of us.
And I think for me there werecertain things that I had to do
(05:24):
to start the journey that I'm onand I think even the journey
that I'm continuing, you'reconstantly on right now, you
know, and that's just creatingawareness for mental health, and
that you don't have to go thelength of time that it has taken
me to figure some of thesethings out.
If I can share that with peopleto be able to shorten their
(05:47):
journey, to get a higher qualityof life or a better life to
live with those that they careabout, then I'm doing the
purpose that I'm still on earthto do.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Damn dude.
What a deep, authentic answer,man.
I appreciate that, ted.
So back at Parris Island.
What time frame is this?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
What year, january of 1990, was when I left Gotcha.
Yeah, Beautiful beautiful.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
All right.
What do you think?
Some of the things All right,so after, I assume, how many
years did you serve Many JeezDamn.
So that brought you pretty much.
What's that?
2012?
Yeah, 2012 that's holy smokes,man.
So there's so.
(06:34):
So walk us through.
Um, you know, whatever,whatever you want to disclose in
regards to your time in theservice and some struggle points
, or what have you.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, so less than a year into Marine Corps, I was in
Saudi Arabia, right.
So boom here, us is nowengrossed in a war that we
hadn't been in, at least for ourgeneration, and 19 years old,
full of it, ready to do whateverneeds to be done.
I had no idea what I was doingreally, but I had some good
(07:05):
leaders with me and over me.
So I was with 2nd Anglico, 2ndSurveillance Reconnaissance
Intelligence Group out ofLejeune, and the buildup was so
massive that there were so manyreserve units associated with us
.
So we were an active duty unit,but we had two large reserve
units with us.
So we were an active duty unitbut we had two large reserve
(07:27):
units with us.
And I can never figure this out.
But the reservists get kind ofpushed towards like the cool
stuff, right, and it's almostlike they had to validate being
activated, right.
And I never really realizedthat until you fast forward to
(07:51):
you know deployments when I wasa captain or a major, because I
did 10 years enlisted and then Iwas commissioned and then I
retired as a major.
So but we'll, we'll, we'llcircle circle around that.
But but we'll, we'll, we'llcircle circle around that.
But yeah, it's, it was just oneof those things where, as a 19
year old kid, you know, justgive me something to attack or
(08:13):
give me something to, you know,just impose my will on, because
that's all you kept hearing.
You know, the Marine Corps,marine Corps, people do impose
their will when they're notdoing the right thing.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Imposing their will and 19 years old.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, and you know, and all through high school I
mean you'd see conflict.
But but again, going back to my, my youth, would you have a
couple of TV channels?
You know, at least we did, andyou didn't get near the coverage
that's out there today.
So you just kind of knew whatyou were directly involved in
(08:54):
and yeah.
So it was weird.
And you know the writingletters and you know you didn't
get phone calls home back thenand stuff like that.
So you know your family waskind of uh-oh, what's happening
and and yeah, so it was just aweird maturation of of, hey, you
know, teenager here it is.
You know this is life and andwhat are you going to do with it
(09:14):
?
So, so I ended up coming backand stayed with the unit I was
in, worked pretty hard and endedup getting meritoriously
promoted to corporal and thenwithin probably six months, I
got orders to go to HMX-1, whichis the Marine One Helicopter
Squadron that flies.
The president, again, knewnothing about what it was.
I just I was jumping out ofplanes, it was in the field a
(09:37):
lot.
I enjoyed that, that's what Iwanted to stay doing.
And they were like no, this isan accepted command which, when
they say you're the guy, you'rethe guy and you're going so.
So I ended up going up there,and another six months later I
find myself in the White Houseliaison office and it was-, who
was the?
president, at the time Clinton.
(09:57):
So it was Bush senior and thenClinton.
So, yeah, so it was just one ofthose times where, again, at
this point this is 92, so I'm 21, 22 years old, and this is a
big deal.
I mean, you got the mostpowerful person in the world and
(10:22):
you're responsible for thesafety transition from you know
whether it's an event to thehelicopter and the helicopter to
Air Force One, or Air Force Oneto or Marine One to a motorcade
what have you?
You know, that's kind of what.
You're on the ground to makesure that there's a safe landing
spot, the landing zone issecure, and you work with other
(10:43):
agencies Secret service, thelocal fire, local law
enforcement, things like that.
So, yeah, it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's a huge deal.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, again, as a young guy I mean in your early
20s that's a lot ofresponsibility.
So growing up I had a lot ofmaturing very quickly, which
served me, I think, very well,because I went to Okinawa after
that and committed to getting myfour-year degree and I ended up
(11:16):
completing that in two and ahalf years.
So, you know, I went to nightschool, I took tests.
Anything that would give mecollege credit towards a degree
I did because I knew that wasthe end game for me.
And then from there I went toofficer candidate school and was
commissioned a secondlieutenant in the Marine Corps.
(11:36):
All of that timeframe was from92 to 90, 99, right, it's kind
of crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
You've accomplished more in that seven year or six
and a half, whatever you want tocall it seven year timeframe
than you know most people havetheir entire lives.
I mean it just is what it is.
I mean you're right, you'reescorting the president on
Marine One and then you're goingto school getting a four year
degree in two and a half years.
That's unheard of.
What's the biggest differencebetween the officer side versus
(12:11):
the enlisted in the Corps?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Well, I think, for enlisted guys, every Marine has
a job right and it's militaryoccupational specialty.
This is what we're paying you todo, this is what you're trained
to do.
And then, when you throw theofficer side of it, there's a
lot of leadership, command typethings that we want to be able
(12:46):
to plug and play you anywherearound the world.
So there's all these IA billets, individual augment billets and
things like that.
They want to be able to justgrab an officer and be able to
shove them somewhere and he'sgoing to be expected to lead and
be able to shove them somewhere.
And he's going to be expectedto lead.
He may not be expected to havethe technical expertise, but as
(13:10):
a Marine officer, you are goingto be expected to lead and
you're going to be expected tohold those Marines to a high
standard or hold those militaryguys because there's a lot of
joint stuff at that point You'reexpected to hold them at a high
standard and make sure thatthey are trained, equipped,
guided and taken care of toexecute the mission that they
(13:30):
have at hand.
You know so providing a lot oftop cover from guys trying to,
or organizations I say guys, butyou know that are trying to
limit your resources or limityour access to certain things.
You have to, you know, be thatumbrella that protects your guys
, so gives them the opportunityto do the things they need to do
(13:53):
.
So I don't know if that makessense, but, yeah, I understood,
of course, 100% understood.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It's just I guess they pay.
I just you weren't some butterbar off the street?
You know what I mean?
You already did the enlistedside, so that's got to play a
huge benefit when you're takingover and leading.
You know a platoon or what haveyou?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
For me, I will say that the best officers are prior
enlisted, coupled only by theworst officers are prior
enlisted Right, really Okay.
It sounds ridiculous, but in myopinion, if you are a prior
enlisted officer a Mustang,whatever I know we call them I'm
pretty sure everybody elsecalls them that or something
(14:41):
like that there's really none ofthose guys that are middle of
the road.
You're either really reallygood or you're really really bad
, and and it all depends on yourexperience as an illicit guy,
right.
So for me, I feel like I wasreally really good and it's not
(15:03):
biased and thinking that I'vehad probably about a month ago I
had a kid that I NJP'd right,reduced him in rank, took him to
Afghanistan, promoted him inAfghanistan to the rank that I
took from him before, and abouta month ago, month and a half
ago, he sends me a message onFacebook saying and about a
(15:24):
month ago, a month and a halfago, he sends me a message on
Facebook saying hey, sir, youknow I appreciate you.
You were the best leader that Iever had and you know I thank
you for doing what you did,because all you did was hold me
accountable and you held me tothe standard that is expected.
It wasn't your standard, itwasn't my standard, it's the
Marine Corps standard, whatever,right, and those types of
(15:46):
things happen a lot.
You know so.
So when I say that the MarineCorps to this day you know
there's lieutenant colonels thatwork for me as lieutenants, and
(16:09):
a lot of that is just timingand longevity and things like
that.
But when you're sticking aroundthat long, you're sticking
around for a reason.
And when I was submitting mycommissioning package, I had a
lieutenant ask me well, whywould you do that?
Of all the things you'veaccomplished as a sergeant and
(16:31):
all these things, I was blownaway because of guys like you.
I don't want to work for a guylike you because you have no
idea what you're doing and youdon't care to know because
you're in charge.
All right, I never, ever had totell anyone.
(16:52):
I was in charge.
When I walked in the room, theyknew I was the guy you know and
I think that's a big difference.
The other side of that and I'veworked for a guy at Parris
Island.
I went back to Parris Island asa company commander, so I
started off as a seriescommander and then I went as a
(17:13):
company commander and I workedfor a company commander who was
a prior enlisted guy and he hadto let everybody know that he
was in charge every single day.
And I just I don't, I don'tagree with that.
I don't think that you, ifyou're in charge, you know and
you know every, every unit hastheir their little command board
(17:34):
photos and stuff like that.
You know.
So you see this guy's face andI, I, I actually told him.
I said, listen, we see yourpicture on the wall nonstop.
We know you're in charge.
You constantly telling us thatyou're in charge.
He would say something likewe're going to do it this way
because I'm in charge what?
(17:56):
Come on man.
So that's what I mean.
You get the extreme.
And I had another one.
He was a second lieutenant whowas a prior staff sergeant and
just not good, not good, right.
And it was because when he was,you know, a junior Marine or
(18:19):
what have you, he had alieutenant.
Oh no, I'm sorry.
He had a lieutenant or no, I'msorry.
He had a platoon sergeant, astaff sergeant that didn't go to
bat for him with his platooncommander and he held that
against his staff sergeant.
So when he became a lieutenanthe had nothing to do or no love
(18:43):
lost for his staff NCOs becausehe was never taken care of and
I'm like that's it, that's,that's not how it works.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
That's the problem with society, society as a whole
.
Right there, like you know,racism for, for, for instance,
one black dude beats up a whiteguy or bullies him, that white
guy is going to hate the.
Not only that, a lot of times awhite guy will hate the black
guy forever.
Every black guy will justcorrelate right to that, rather
(19:13):
than realizing that every singlehuman being is different in who
they are.
And you know it shouldn't.
You can't judge one based offof another experience in this
life.
I mean you just can't it basedoff of another experience in
this life.
I mean you just can't.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
But it's just like law enforcement, right Law
enforcement.
So I was in a motorcycle clubwhen I got out of the Marine
Corps and was in there foralmost 10 years and you know
there was ACAB, ac, a, b allcops are bad, right what?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
same exact thing right.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So the the funny thing for me, it's like they're
doing a job.
That's all they're doing, right?
If they pull you over forspeeding, you were speeding.
Your interactions determinewhether you get a ticket or not.
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
That's yeah.
Yeah, you're usually rightabout that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
So the fact is, you get pissed off at these guys,
because they hold youaccountable for doing something
wrong.
And you know what else.
It is the media.
They want divide.
They want to divide betweenhuman beings.
They want that because if theyfeel it's their fuel to their
little like fire that they tryto put all across the airwaves,
which they're really good at,obviously, and like they want,
they want to divide, so they'regonna exacerbate.
You know, god forbid again.
(20:43):
Vice versa, just like you'retalking about the cop, like a
cop black guy, maybe he'sresisting arrest a bit and he
goes to try to grab the cop'sgun and then he gets killed.
That'll be blasted everywhere.
You know, racism is alive andwell in America, but that's
simply not the case.
And it's like when people startto differentiate and maybe do
(21:04):
some studies on their own andrealize, yes, are there racist
people out there?
A hundred percent.
Are there bad cops?
Yes, are there bad black guys?
Yes, but there's good versusbad.
It's not necessarily the colorof their skin, where they were
born or anything like that, butthat's what everything wants to
get pointed to.
It's kind of sick.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
And you're absolutely right, it's good versus evil.
And you're absolutely right,it's good versus evil.
And the gun laws.
Everyone's talking about gunlaws.
Guns don't kill people.
Bad people with guns killpeople, right, but a bad person?
If a bad person wants to dosomething bad, they're going to
find a way to do something bad.
They're going to have theillegal guns anyway, they're
(21:43):
going to get them.
So it's like you know, and itgoes back to what we talked
about earlier was the whole, youknow, the faith portion.
Right, if a large percentagewould read the Bible and
understand the Bible, everythingthat's happening in the world
is in the Bible.
(22:05):
It's a fact right, my churchhere just did a series, and they
always do a series, but theydid a series on constitutional
governance and things-blowing,right, because things that are
happening.
(22:26):
He throws all the scripturetogether and then, you know,
like just overlays it and at theend of it all, if we could
understand that one we're not incharge of anything you know, of
anything you know and holdourselves accountable and look
(22:47):
at our neighbors as equals,regardless of status, for
anything you know, life wouldn'tbe near as near as difficult.
You know, and you're right, man, that book of Revelation is
it's.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
It's crazy.
Everything has been prophesiedby, you know, back to the old
testament.
You know daniel ezekiel,whoever they are, the prophets,
basically everything that'sgoing on, the nations that are
rising against israel as wespeak, and you know judgment
days.
You know I'm no expert on thismatter by any means, but
judgment days probably rightaround the corner I mean yeah,
yeah, which is scary.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
You know which is scary?
Because you think about therapture and the natural
disasters and things like that.
I mean, those are just to meanyway, and again, I'm not a
theologist or theologian orwhatever you know, but I know
(23:46):
what resonates with me when I,when I sit and listen to you
know, my pastor and things likethat, and it's like these are,
these are just signs, and to me,the way I receive it is, these
are signs that God is saying heyman, my people get your shit
together.
Right my people get your shittogether, right, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
So get your shit together because if not, then
you know, here we are.
So, yeah, that's pretty much.
You know he's telling me.
I know for a fact, he's tellingme that direct, like every
single day.
Just hearing your voice sayssay, it is just that's.
I mean, it could be a form ofhim speaking through you,
directly to me or anybody elselistening to this get your shit
together.
For me that's exactly what Ineed to do, because time's
ticking and I know time'sticking, but I just keep, like
(24:38):
you know, pushing it off andpushing it off and still living
in the way I want to live, andit's just just like it's not
working anymore.
So I got it, I got topersonally get my shit together.
It's hopefully, you know, ifsomething were to happen, right,
this second, hopefully he's.
He's merciful.
But speaking of the rapture,ted, let me ask you something.
Do you go by, ted, ever?
By the way?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah, so Ted is fine, because my dad's not sitting
behind me, right?
So I'm actually a junior andearly on in my career, my adult
life or what have you, I went byTed and then I was home and my
sister calls me Ted and she'slike hey, ted, and my dad, I
(25:22):
said yeah, and my dad's likethat's me, you know, I'm like so
so it's, it's, it's like youknow.
And then, and then when Ibecame older, you know it's like
teddy.
Teddy is actually my birth name, so it's not theodore, it's not
, it is, it's legit teddy on mybirth certificate and everything
(25:44):
else.
And uh, so I, so I'm like justembrace it, you know.
I mean, yeah, whatever, so, butuh, yeah, so either way, I'm
good either way.
And uh, you know, I know, Iknow who you're talking to,
we're good, all right.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So let's, let's, uh, let's, let me try to.
I wanted to ask something onthe rapture real quick, because
like that's, that's a phenomenonor whatever I can't even say
that word, but that's somethingthat's like very out of this
world, right?
So If that were to happen, ifthat happened, right as we were
right here, you just vanished.
I would know for a fact that,ok, like now I'm getting my shit
(26:23):
together One hundred percent,like these people didn't just
disappear, but somehow, I don'tknow.
It's just.
That's a hard concept for me tograsp, but some people believe
in it, some people don't.
It's just very out of thisworld, which is God in a sense,
but it's like, you know,supernatural, almost.
You know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
No, and I agree, natural, almost you know.
Yeah, no, and I agree, and Ithink, uh, I think sometimes
people are taken way too soonRight, and and it's never for us
to to understand that thegrieving aspect and the pain and
the anger and all those thingsand the questions of faith and
things like that, why, that'sthe human side of life and death
(27:10):
, right, that's for me, havingdeployed multiple times, my
question to myself was alwaysdid I do enough?
Did I train these guys hardenough?
Did I make the right decisions?
Did I do everything in my powerto keep us all safe, all
prosperous and able to come home?
(27:31):
So, when you deal with thosethings, the only way you can
process those and the only wayyou can deal with those is
understanding that it's not yourdecision.
And I'll take it one stepfurther.
So, two guys walking down thestreet, one takes a sniper round
(27:55):
, killed, instantly.
Right, everyone takes cover.
What have you?
Years ago, my brain processedthis, as you know, very
difficult, like how or why is myprayer chain stronger than his
right?
My prayer chain Stronger thanhis Right?
(28:16):
Because If, if One person wasgoing to Be killed that day, was
his people not praying as hardas my?
people, you know what I mean and, yeah, and I don't know the
answer to that and I never will,and there probably is not an
answer to that, but it was.
It was me Trying to make senseof you know why him, why not me,
(28:44):
or why not me this time, or whynot what happened.
So trying to make sense of thatlegitimately drove me crazy.
And, uh, the moral side of, andthe moral injury aspect of,
(29:05):
ptsd, right, ptsd or PTS,whatever you want to call it is,
is nothing more than surviving,right, you were placed in a
moment that you had to survive,right, that's that's what
triggers the PTSD moments, andsome people say it's fight or
flight.
I think for me at this point,there's four of them.
(29:25):
There's fight, flight, fog andfreeze.
Right, so you're going to doone of those four things in a
moment of danger survival, asurvival scenario.
So fight, flight, freeze or fog.
(29:46):
So, as a commander, was I makingclouded decisions that I freeze
just long enough to makesomething substantial not happen
or give enough time to makeanother choice?
(30:11):
So there's a lot of that thatyou question as a Monday morning
quarterback, instead oftrusting in the faith that is
laid on you and the grace andthe mercy that's laid on you
every single day.
So, trying to understand someof those things I never have and
(30:34):
maybe never will, except forthe fact that over the last
couple of years I have really, Iguess, begun to realize for me
to move forward, I have toaccept things, I have to
acknowledge that they happenedand I have to accept the outcome
, as that was the plan that Idon't control.
(30:55):
You know, I never controlledthose things.
I only made the choices that Ifelt were the best for the
situation.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, that's the deep stuff, Ted.
A quick question how manydeployments total?
Six total?
How many do Iraq versusAfghanistan?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Oh, let's see.
So I was in a first Gulf warcourse, and then, oh three, I
was in Iraq.
Seven, oh eight, iraq, oh nineand 10, uh, afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
So that's a lot of wear and tear, yeah, a lot, and
then um and then um and then 01.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I was in uh at european command of stuttgart,
germany, and kind of bounced inand out of areas from from over
there.
So I was responsible for theGeorgia training and equip
program, which in the PankeseeGorge.
(32:00):
That was where the Russiansinvaded Afghanistan the first
time and got their asses handedto them.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
So we sent who was the US backing?
Speaker 2 (32:13):
The Georgians, yeah, okay, okay.
So trying to train them to makesure that they were built up
from coming through that gorge,escaping Afghanistan, because we
(32:42):
were going on the other side.
You know so, but you know so.
It was just one of those thingswhere I was gone quite a bit
and, you know, got to do a lotof cool stuff, got to meet a lot
of cool people, a lot of greatpeople that raised the right
(33:03):
hand to support and defend theConstitution against all enemies
, foreign and domestic.
You know a presidentialelection that is doing that
exact, that exact thing.
You know that, uh, I stayedaround the Marine Corps for so
(33:24):
long because I wanted to leavemy sons a better place to live,
you know, and and a better,better place where maybe they
didn't have to deal with thestuff that you know I deal with,
or or things like that.
And you know, hell, it's worsenow than it's ever been.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Think so you know this.
Yeah, that's an accuratestatement.
This it's crazy man and it'slike sometimes I question, like
the greater the greater.
I mean as a whole, and againthis could be considered
blasphemous, but as a whole, doyou think the us is, is is
generally or genuinely concernedabout its people, or is it more
(34:02):
so, just like maybe a verysmall portion of those people,
very, very small portion, theycare about and that's how they
make their, that's how theymaneuver.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, so.
And again, this's how theymaneuver.
Yeah, so, uh, you know.
And again, this is.
These are, these are myopinions, but I I don't think
they are by and large.
I think I think people that aremaking decisions live in a
place that the worst of theworst aren't going to show up at
(34:35):
their doorstep Right so theworst of the worst aren't going
to show up at their doorstep,right.
So people that continue to makethese decisions like there's no
issues with the border, there'sno issues with violent crime,
there's no issues with hungry USfolks, americans living on the
(34:58):
streets and things like that.
They're not subjected to thatevery single day, you know, and
those people don't want to diginto the stuff that's being felt
by guys like me, guys like youthat you know.
You I had a parking ticket thatI went to fight downtown San
(35:19):
Antonio and I'm not bullshittingwhen I tell you that I pulled
into the parking lot and therewere nine shell casings on the
ground in the parking spot rightnext to mine.
The police station is rightacross the street street.
So the people that are makingdecisions to protect the
citizens, protect the border,protect the fundamental rights
(35:48):
of US citizens don't see theatrocities that are being thrust
on us every single day?
Short answer is no.
I don't think, by and large,the leadership of America is in
a place that cares about theAmerican citizen.
Right, when I grew up and againsmall-town America, and I'll
tell you, I grew up in a familythat my grandfather was a stout
(36:11):
Democrat, my mom, to this day,is a stout Democrat I was
protected small town America,right.
Well, now you don't see that,right, you see the.
You see the I was.
(36:32):
I never thought that anythingbad would happen to me.
Right, and America was a legitsuperpower.
And then the first presidentialelection that I ever remember
was Carter and Reagan.
And we had a we had in theclassroom, we had like a little
(37:09):
mock, you know, presidentialelection and half the class had
to do research on Carter, halfthe class had to do research on
Reagan.
Then we had an election.
Well, I voted for Reaganbecause I thought he was the
better choice.
Grandparents and my mom, when Igot home from school, all hell
broke loose, you know, becauseit's a straight D.
You know, you could, you could,if there was a D on Scooby-Doo.
He was getting a vote from myfamily at the time, right, so,
but that was like when Iremember and looking back and
(37:30):
there's some times there where Ididn't really care, but that
was like a defining moment againas we talked about like, wow,
you know, we get away from whois in the best interest of
America, who is in the bestinterest of protecting the
foundational energy that we asAmericans should promote.
(37:51):
You know, I want America to be asuperpower, like it was when I
grew up.
You know I want America to be asuperpower like it was when I
grew up.
You know nobody's afraid of us.
We're getting to the pointwhere nobody's afraid of the
military, the US military, right, because our hands are so tight
.
So get back to the point ofbuilding America as the
superpower that says you knowwhat, when we say, don't do that
(38:12):
, you had better not do thatbecause we will carry out what
we said we were going to do.
You know, and I think there'sonly for me you know there is.
There is one option, at leastthis year, and I hope, I hope in
four years.
I hope this year we flip it andthen I hope in four more years
(38:35):
that we have the best possiblecandidate that's going to
continue to preserve theAmerican people and the values
that we hold and we grew up with, because, if not, it's scary to
think about our children andour grandchildren and
generations to come, because weare going in the wrong direction
(38:55):
and we're going to be one ofthese countries very soon that
are holding our hand out tryingto get something from other
people, and that should never bethe case.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
If Harris is elected again.
That's probably exactly wherewe're headed Now.
I'll be voting for Trump.
I think he did a fantastic jobon the global stage as far as
keeping us out of battles andwars with, you know, strength
(39:28):
through vigilance.
But at the same time, ted, I dothink that, no matter which
president's elected, it's only amatter of time before one of
these retards you know you can'treally say that word anymore
but one of these retards thatare the dictator or president of
their nation to start pushingbuttons and wiping out.
You know mass amounts of peopleand you know nuclear fallout
(39:53):
taking place or something alongthose lines is coming relatively
soon.
But yeah, voting for Trump willprobably delay that
significantly, I would hope.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Well, yeah, and I think so.
And you know I don't likepolitics, I'll be honest with
you, because I feel everyone'strying to sell you something and
it's like, hey, look at me, butit's not really look at me.
It's just like here I am, butlook over here at how bad.
I can tell you this guy isright, or this gal.
In this current instance it'sthis gal.
Look how bad she is right.
(40:24):
So I'm not a fan of politics,but I will say this the country
is in dire straits because wehave allowed so many to cross
the border and we don't evenknow who's here now.
And when you talk about theSpringfield Ohio folks and
that's not too far from where Iwas born- what happened in
(40:46):
Springfield.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
What's happened in Springfield, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Well, they have.
So the population ofSpringfield, I think, is in the
50,000s Right, don't quote mynumbers, but I think it's
roughly 50,000, 60,000,.
Right in Springfield they justbrought in not just, but over
this past cycle 20,000 Haitians.
(41:10):
So think about that.
A third right of the populationin a small town in America is
now their own entity, basicallyRight.
So they don't, they don't speakEnglish.
Some of them that do you knowit's broken.
(41:31):
They're given the debit cardwith, you know, $1,500 a month,
if not more, to get theirgroceries and they got housing
and they got all these things.
(41:54):
It's like what about thehomeless veterans down in
Philadelphia right now?
Where's the American dreamright?
Where's the American dreamright?
Where's my American dream right?
Because the America that I grewup and the America that I
fought for and things like thatI wanted everyone to have the
opportunity to live.
Feel, you know, the Americandream and we don't even provide
(42:15):
that for our own citizens.
Now, you know, and that'sthat's the crime I think in the
political state is like when youconstantly give people that do
not come into this countrylegally right and legal
immigration.
I'm all for, because themelting pot, that's how we
(42:35):
increase our diversity and allthose things.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
You're not a bigot racist who doesn't want anybody
besides white people runningaround in America.
No, Listen.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
I can't even say that I've tried that route.
You know what I mean.
So it's like yeah, because,again, I've traveled all over
the world.
I've lived in a lot ofdifferent places, to include
outside the US, and people justwant to be people, be disruptive
(43:18):
to this country.
Why would you not try and do itthe right way?
Because there's plenty ofopportunity and there's plenty
of options to come into the USthe right way, so why would you
not do that?
Why would you show up to beclassified by some and by the
majority as an illegal or acriminal?
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Because you are, because you are it's kind of
nuts, because they say that,like these other countries I
mean, imagine us, imagine the uswe take all of our you know
murderers and rapists and we, weliterally plane them and drop,
drop, drop them off in a foreignland.
See, you guys, take care,thanks for doing nothing for our
(43:54):
country.
But besides destroying it andnow you can go destroy that
country as well it's just likeit doesn't make any sense, but
you know why?
So the Democrats are thepolitical figures that are
holding these offices.
Now, I don't know if it'sexactly in these cities or what,
but in general, they want thisto happen because they're
undocumented and essentiallythey can.
(44:16):
That's why they're pushing forthe no IDs at voting, because
then they can vote Democrat andthey win on the election and
continue this, this path ofdestruction.
Essentially.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Through and through.
There's so much movement fromNew York to Florida or
California to Texas or all these, all these very quasi liberal
areas to stout conservativeareas For the same reason.
(44:49):
Well, if your state or yourarea is so screwed up and you
don't want to live there, theonly way you get to live
someplace else is by changingthe way you do business.
And your business at that pointis the way you do life and the
way you make decisions and theway you support your neighbor
and support your country and notbe so entitled.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
The expectations and the entitlement have ruined our
country immensely, so it's uhyou're not into into politics
too much, teddy, but let me saythis is we need people like you
in in held positions because youknow, it's just I don't know
how, but it seems like all like.
It seems like anytime I turnaround the worst, mainly on both
(45:37):
sides they're just like theworst type of people.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Sometimes they're just like you know they have no
issues, you know daddy's moneygrowing up and somehow they're
in these offices and it's justlike it's crazy yeah, or or the,
the career politicians that, uh, you know, started, you know,
in a in a local seat when theywere just out of college, and
(45:59):
now they've been doing it for 40years and they just keep moving
up to a higher spot, and thingslike that.
It's like but what have youdone?
What have you done other thanjust go into through the motions
?
Get the guys that want to makea difference, get the guys that
(46:20):
understand the higher calling,so to speak.
You know, because I believethat there is a, a spiritual
side to to politics, and it'sbeen documented as well, and
it's in the Bible as well thatyou know there is a biblical
(46:41):
leadership and there's, likeit's politically or it's
biblically backed policy orpolitics.
You know so, and again, I'mprobably jumbling all that up,
but, uh, but it's out there.
I mean, and and the educationpiece does not come from
(47:03):
mainstream media.
The education piece doesn'tcome from, you know, your, your
neighbor, who, who heard, youknow, at the corner market.
You know, whatever, we owe itto our, our children and the
future generations to educateourselves and to make the better
choices for our future.
(47:25):
And our future starts now.
It's not just a matter of well,you know, in four years, if the
Democrats win again.
Well, in four years, no, it hasto start right now, because
this is a problem that hasn'thappened overnight.
It's something that our countryhas diminished in three and a
(47:45):
half years and I'm afraid to seewhat it's going to look like in
four years if the Democratswent again.
It's going to be scary.
If the Democrats win again,it's going to be scary as small
(48:13):
as the school board, your localschool board, or the mayor, the
county commissioner, all thesethings that start locally.
We're going to lose ourneighborhoods, we're going to
lose our communities, we'regoing to lose the small
infrastructure that has grownAmerica since its founding.
And it has to start somewhere.
(48:36):
But the people have to come outand they have to educate
themselves to figure out what isit that I truly want and expect
out of a country that issupposed to be the strongest
country in the world, asuperpower that everybody talks
about?
The American dream.
We don't talk about theUzbekistan dream or the whatever
(49:02):
.
I mean.
I want to live the Zimbabwedream.
No, we don't do that.
But you damn sure around theworld know what the American
dream is.
Around the world know what theAmerican dream is it's time that
politicians start putting inplace things that protect
(49:23):
Americans and catapult thoseopportunities for Americans to
find that American dream,because it's here and we're
pissing it away and we're givingit away to folks that are
undeserving and don't evenbelong here.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Amen, Ted.
That's well said.
What is on your agenda nowadays, Ted?
What do you got going on?
I know you got a nonprofit.
Why don't you talk?
Speaker 2 (49:46):
to us about that a bit.
So the last couple of years, mypersonal journey and I'll give
you the snapshot.
So in April 16th so I retiredin 2000 from the Marine Corps 22
years of service, kind ofbounced around a little bit, was
just not really in a good place, mental health wise, and was
struggling, find identity andpurpose and things like that.
(50:08):
So really struggling.
And April 16th, 2016, I put a45 pistol in my mouth and I was
not happy with what I had doneand who I was and the role model
that I was lacking for my sons,my three-year-old son, who's 12
(50:31):
now.
He came around the corner.
I thought he was napping.
He came around the corner andasked me for juice and instantly
kind of changed my life, savedmy life.
It was one of those thingswhere I knew at that point that
I had a higher purpose and so Ijust started advocating for
(50:57):
veterans and trying to improvetheir quality of life as as a
model, if you will, as atemplate, so to speak, because
you know, I retired in 12, likeI said, so we were four, almost
five years in at this point andonly until 22, 2022, I was, I
(51:25):
was grinding.
That's a decade.
That's a decade of a life thatis spent every single day trying
to not end it.
That's tough.
It's tough to live like that.
I just continued to fight, tofight, continue to try and
(51:51):
figure out why I was still hereand how I could make my life
better but make those around mebetter.
But more so and mostimportantly is to get folks to
understand that it is thatimportant to be able to identify
, acknowledge and accept whereyou are in life and then change
it if you're not happy with it.
(52:12):
I went down to Mexico in 2023.
I did some treatment down therewith the Mission Within.
Life-changing psychedelic.
Psychedelic treatment was super, super impactful.
It was probably the mostpowerful, most painful, most
(52:34):
rewarding and most healing thingthat I'd ever done.
At that point Came back and Iwas in what I thought a good
place, you know kind of recoveryand things like that.
But my head was still soscrewed up that I couldn't make
ends meet, couldn't understandthings.
(52:54):
So I ended up getting acceptedto a place called Marcus
Institute for Brain Health.
So I've had five head injuriesI have a traumatic brain injury,
head injuries I have atraumatic brain injury and the
Marcus Institute.
I went earlier this year andinpatient and that was probably
(53:16):
the most impactful place thatI've ever been.
That allowed me to understandwhat's happening, because as
guys, we want to understand.
If something is bothering us,we want to understand what it is
and then we want to fix it.
As a Marine Corps officer, Iwas tasked with fixing problems
(53:43):
for 12 years, as a platoonsergeant.
You add another five or sixyears of that, so you know we
got almost two decades of justfixing problems, and now I
couldn't even understand my ownproblems nor start to fix it,
because I didn't know what washappening.
So I get accepted, marcus, wego up there.
(54:05):
It's inpatient, which it'sexhausting.
Every single day was just, youknow, boom, boom, boom, with
therapies and differentmodalities and it's all
interdisciplinary.
So it's a, it's just a greatorganization.
But this was the first timethat they actually started
explaining things to me thatmade sense.
And the VA, as good as they arein a lot of things, I feel that
(54:29):
they missed the mark in mentalhealth and they missed the mark
in traumatic brain injury andthings like that, because they
umbrella and they blanket treatPTSD and when I got to Marcus,
they were just chopping thisthing up, you know, making it
make sense.
So when you have a blow to thehead, your vestibular gets kind
(54:53):
of off, right, vestibular beingyour balance.
Okay, well, if I duck down,you'll see like I got scars all
over my head.
I got a couple from deploymentsand things like that.
I had some of them.
I got a couple from deploymentsand things like that, but a lot
of them are just nicks andwhatever, because my depth
perception was just crazy I'dwalk into a door, walk into a
(55:13):
wall right, bend over to pick upsomething in the garage and get
up too fast and hit theworkbench, whatever.
Well, all that stuff is brainrelated, right.
And I started thinking like,okay, well, it's just me.
Well, even when you walk downthe street and I would have the
(55:35):
boys with me and I felt likethey were like bumping into me
and zigging and zagging, no,that was me, because my brain
was not observing everything.
All it was doing was trying tokeep me upright and walking
straight.
Right, because your brain, ahealthy brain, all that stuff is
autonomous, right, it's justlike boom, you get up and you
(55:57):
walk.
You know, well, when you have abrain injury, you have to think
about getting up and walking andthings like that and I never
knew any of that.
I never knew that.
You know, when I get headachesin my eyes because they're tired
, because they're jumping backand forth, because I can't focus
on I think I'm trying to focuson something, but my eyes are
(56:19):
going somewhere else, you know.
So you know the hearing and thefocus and even your speech.
Like I knew that my brain andmy mouth would not sync up,
especially if I was tired or Ijust got stressed out or I was
doing whatever, and you create astammer and all these things.
So when I got to Marcus, theyjust dissected all these things
(56:41):
and they started implementing.
You know your brain is somewhat, you can retrain it.
You know the vestibular you canretrain it.
And your eyes or muscles, youcan retrain them.
And it's all these things that,legitimately, the past I guess
four or five months have beenearth shattering in my life.
(57:05):
Right?
So you increase your quality oflife by 5%.
Well, the ripple effect forthose around you is double that.
Right, because when I would getpissed off, that I hit my head
or I walked into a room and Icouldn't remember something.
Well, now you're irritatedabout everything and it's hard
because your brain is alreadyexhausted.
(57:27):
So you can't get that backuntil you go silent, right, or
lay down.
Well, the thing is is when yourbrain is constantly active,
you're not going to be able toget the quality sleep that our
bodies need to recover, right?
So you got the five pillars ofdeath right, you got PTSD, you
(57:49):
got TBI, you got chronic pain,you got insomnia and you have
mood which is depression,anxiety, all those things right.
So I know that I live with allof those every single day, right
?
What Marcus helped meunderstand is I can lessen these
so they're not as impacted, butmore so that I remain in
(58:14):
control now, because when youdon't understand these things,
it's hard to acknowledge whatyou don't understand.
So now that I understand thesebetter and I can acknowledge
them, then I can control them.
And those five, in my opinion,are what lead to veterans taking
their lives every single daybecause they don't understand
(58:35):
these and they're so overwhelmedthat something has to give.
And I believe that these fatalfive are the thing that leads to
.
You know, we can call it the 22a day, but whatever that number
is, it's too high and this isdirectly attributed to that.
(58:55):
So, being at Marcus and theother great thing that they
allowed me to understand is thePTSD that I live with day in,
day out, is more so on the moralinjury side and the burden of
command, and that's the firsttime in over a decade that I've
(59:15):
ever heard moral injury, becausethe grief and the shame, all
those things, the burden ofcommand, when you question
yourself like, am I a bad person, did I do a bad thing?
You know, it's all these thingsthat weigh on you because you
(59:38):
don't know that door being ableto say, okay, a moral injury is
not, it's something that thatyou have to process in your own
way.
Uh, but you can only do that ifyou see it and you, you know it
, and you and you start to uh,you know, develop your, your
(01:00:01):
acceptance of that, you know so.
So that's that's where I'm atnow, right Right here, right
today.
And I shared that versionbecause in 2013, I founded First
Coast Heroes Outreach, which isa 501C3 veteran nonprofit, and
(01:00:21):
we started doing mental healthand we started to take care of
Marines and things like that.
And then we've since rebrandedto what we are now and we took
on first responders as well asveterans.
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
So the name remained the same it did.
Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Well, it originally was something else and now what
we are now is what we are FirstCoast Heroes Outreach, so.
But what I have pushed us to dois get away from mental health
in the treatment of that,because there's so many folks
out there.
So what I do just like joiningyou on this podcast and having
(01:01:01):
this opportunity is I try to getawareness out there that these
things aren't umbrellaed.
It's not a cookie cutter.
Mental health is not a cookiecutter.
So, providing education,providing awareness, providing
treatment opportunities andvarious modalities that are
available to veterans and firstresponders because if you just
(01:01:24):
go to your doctor, you just goto your VA, you're going to get
medicine and you're go to yourdoctor, you just go to your,
your VA, you're going to getmedicine and you're going to get
counseling Right, and I'm notsaying neither one of those are
effective, but I'm telling youthat the number one impact for
me is between my ears,understanding what is happening,
(01:01:44):
understanding what is going onand what caused me to lose my
shit at a second.
And so, First Coast HeroesOutreach, what we do now is try
to educate, advocate and getawareness out there, for you are
your biggest proponent of yourhealthcare, of your wellness.
(01:02:08):
You are the only one that caresas much as you do about you.
There's opportunities for us andwe try to be proactive in
delivering things like this,because there's crisis centers
all over the country.
There's crisis centers all overthe country.
There's crisis numbers all overthe country.
(01:02:29):
You can pick up and dial 988,you know.
Or everyone wants to help forcrisis.
You know crisis happens.
Everyone wants to flood thereand help.
Right, Where's the fuckingpeople that try to prevent
crisis?
Right, that's what we're tryingto do.
We're trying to get toindividuals, get to folks, get
(01:02:49):
to guys that may be on the cuspof you know what?
I'm losing my shit.
I have no idea what's happening.
That's the guys we want to getto.
That's the guys we want to talkto, and I don't want somebody
to deal with this for over adecade, like I've dealt with.
Right, I don't want so much.
(01:03:12):
If you're in the midst of itright now and you reach out to
me, we will figure out a waythat you cut your struggle in
half.
So, if you're in the midst ofsomething that you feel is
becoming overwhelming and youneed some outlet, if you reach
out to me, we will work ourtails off to make sure that you
get to a place that is going tohelp you, Not after the fact,
(01:03:35):
because we want to work andensure that your quality of life
increases and you can.
You can build your, your bestlife, living for your family and
that ripple effect for forother people.
So it's just, it's just one ofthose things that I, I, I truly
(01:03:59):
believe in the quality of lifepiece, and I'll, I'll share this
, this with you and then I'll,I'll shut my my mouth, but the I
always thought, when I was inPensacola, Florida, every week I
saw a psychologist, a socialworker, a psychiatrist, and I
went to group therapy rightEvery week.
(01:04:20):
So that's four appointmentstalking, touch-feely stuff every
week.
And I was on my motorcycle.
I went to the post office tomail a package and I pulled in
and some guy was like you know,oh, you got a little close, you
know, I'm like no, sir, I didn't.
And he's like well, that's whyguys like you are splattered all
over the highways.
Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
Wait, who was?
Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
this.
This was just a random yeah,just some random guy at the post
office, right?
So unbeknownst to him.
I had just gotten word thatmorning that one of my best
friends, a Marine, was killed onhis motorcycle on his on his
way to work, right.
So I'm processing this.
I know I have a psychappointment and I had to mail
(01:05:04):
this package.
I mail it and he's just jawjacking and I finally just said
you know what, sir?
Here's the deal.
I'm going in, I'm going to mailmy package.
If you're sitting here, when Icome out I'm going to drag you
out of your fucking truck andI'm going to beat your ass.
And some old gal was walking in,right, and I held the door for
(01:05:25):
her because I'm a gentleman.
So I held the door.
The old gal walks in and she'sstanding in front of me and I'm
just facing the counter.
I'm here to mail my package,that's it.
You know, just standing therewith my package, and this old
gal in front of me, she keptlooking out, looking out,
looking out.
And then, just as she gotcalled to the counter, she turns
(01:05:46):
around and she says I guess hedecided to leave.
And I just kind of shook myhead, I said, yes, man, and I
mailed my package and she waitedfor me.
I opened up the door and shewalked out and she's like well,
sweetheart, you have a good day.
I said, yes, ma'am, you too.
So I go to my psych appointmentand I'm sharing the story.
And I said you know?
I said yes, ma'am, you too.
So I go to my psych appointmentand I'm sharing the story.
(01:06:06):
And I said you know?
I said it's things like thatthat send me from zero to 100.
Right Like zero to 100, justlike that.
This was the first other timethat changed my mindset.
He said, teddy, you're not everat zero and you will never
(01:06:33):
again be at zero.
He said you probably walkaround at 90 or 95 right now.
So you go on from 90 or 95 to ahundred, just like.
That is pretty reasonable.
He said my goal is to get youwalking around at 75.
He said because if I can getyou down to 75, your quality of
life changes dramatically andthe ripple effect from you
(01:06:57):
getting to 75, that will be feltby your family and the loved
ones that you share time withwill be even more than that, and
the loved ones that you sharetime with will be even more than
that and I I I share that storya lot and I keep that close to
my my heart and my soul becauseit made so much sense.
(01:07:20):
We are so hard on ourselves.
We never give ourselves creditfor how far we've actually come,
and I think it's important tosay those two things to each
other and to yourself.
You know, like, give yourself abreak.
You know great job today orwhat have you, because you know
(01:07:41):
veterans out there, firstresponders, I mean people in
general.
You know we're our worst criticand we have come a long way
just to be where we are.
So why would we not allowourselves to take a little bit
of credit for that andunderstand that life is,
especially right now, is hardand you're doing a good job?
Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
Man, what a great way to wrap this thing up.
Ted Dude, your testimony isridiculous and you've been
through hell and back, obviously, but you're so gracious and
besides wanting to rip that dudeand just stomp his head into
the concrete, I was shocked.
But yeah, dude, you're just anawesome individual.
(01:08:25):
So right now, how wouldsomebody get in touch with your
nonprofit or yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Yeah, so First Coast Heroes is our, is our, our
channels, and heroesoutreachorgis is our Web site.
There's a contact button onthere that'll come to our info
site, or myself, my personalemail is tcolgate first, initial
(01:08:52):
, last name, altogether atheroesoutreach.
Send me a message and I willget back to you within probably
a short amount of time, at leastthat day.
And yeah, I mean, it's just oneof those things that heroes
underscore.
Outreach are Facebook andInstagram, you know, of course,
(01:09:14):
but if you, if you, if youGoogle first coast heroes
outreach but heroes outreachorgis our, is our main channel.
And again, I would be remiss ifI did not say there's a donation
button on there, because it'sone of those things that we try
to be proactive in all thisstuff and a lot of times, if I
(01:09:37):
have the opportunity to goplaces and speak and get that
message out, those costs add upand nobody on Heroes Outreach
takes a salary.
We don't worry about the money.
We're going to continue to dowhat we do, but it does help
offset some of our expenses andit's just one of those where the
(01:10:04):
message is about taking care ofpeople and, you know, being a
good neighbor, being a goodcitizen, being supportive of
those that need it.
And you know, when you walkinto a room or you walk into a
restaurant, understand that ifthere's a hundred people in
there, there's a hundreddifferent struggles going on and
you don't know what those are.
(01:10:25):
And it's okay that you don'tknow what those are, but just
realize that everyone's dealingwith stuff, especially in this
day, and we owe it to ourselvesand we owe it to each other to
try and be as supportive aspossible.
So that's what we're here to do.
Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
Yes, sir, you guys make sure you know you hit the
donate, donate, and I'mdefinitely going to be donating
to an organization like this.
Most organizations, nonprofits,they do have, you know, a board
of individuals where they'redrawing hefty salaries and you
don't really know where themoney's going.
But with this one, by all means, hit that, hit that donate
button.
This guy's phenomenal and,teddy, I hope I can grab you for
(01:11:03):
a few minutes after thispodcast.
But seriously, man, dailyAmerican welcomes you and thanks
you so much for everythingyou're doing for society as a
whole, especially veterans.
Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
I appreciate the opportunity and you know.
Thank you for your platform andcontinue to get that message
out.
Thanks, dan.
Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Yes, sir.
We're back with the Daily American.
Just want to welcome to theshow Mr Teddy Colgate.
Teddy, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, thanks.
Thanks for having me, Dan.
It's good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Absolutely, teddy.
So you know, obviously we'restrangers to each other.
Besides the pretty awesome, youknow we had a nice little
10-minute conversation about our.
You know just what's going onin our lives and stuff.
But go ahead and kick us offwith you.
Know your childhood a bit andwhere you were born.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, so I was born in Hamilton, ohio, and you know
my folks have both sides of myparents lived in that area, some
in Indiana, some in Ohio, andit was a small-town America
living, you know, and I enjoyedbeing outside, being on the farm
, running around with no shoes,on things like that, and some of
(00:51):
my fondest memories are beingoutside in the dirt just working
for my family.
Seven and my dad moved to Ohioand my mom stayed in Indiana,
but it was about seven, seven,10 miles apart, you know.
So I was the typical everyother weekend, uh, kid, where
(01:15):
you cross the border and uhspent, uh, spent your weekend
with your folks, uh, that youdidn't live with.
So you know it was, uh, it wasa much simpler time back then, I
think, and especially for meand the neighborhood.
There was no street light,there was no stop sign, it was
(01:36):
one road that went throughDrewsburg, indiana and, yeah, it
was country living at itsfinest.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
It sounds like a peaceful time in your life.
What about high school sportsor anything?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, so growing up I played five sports and I have
in seventh and eighth grade myjunior high years I played
football and I wrestled, Iplayed basketball, ran track and
then I played baseball.
So it was nonstop.
My mom would work three jobssometimes, you know, waitressing
(02:12):
and cutting hair and thingslike that, to make sure I had
all the equipment I needed.
And yeah, it was good.
And then my freshman year ofhigh school I moved down to
Florida from Indiana to playbaseball year round.
My mom just kind of said, youknow what, let's give it a shot.
And I was all for it, of course.
And so I went to high school inSt Petersburg, florida, wow.
(02:34):
And then you know things happenwhen there's a thousand.
You know recruits out there andthings like that.
So I didn't pan out.
You know recruits out there andthings like that.
So didn't, didn't pan out, hadsome issues in high school and
just didn't really care for forschool in general and ended up
joining the Marine Corps afterattending a bonus I'll call it a
(02:58):
bonus semester of high school,because I had gotten in trouble
my junior year and lost a wholesemester for drinking at the
prom.
So you know lessons learned.
But you know, I mean lookingback.
It's like critical moments inyour life that shape you and
(03:20):
it's one of those things.
That is definitely one of themthat really got me and I
wouldn't be here today.
I don't think my path wouldn'thave taken the path it took had
that not happened, because Iwent down to the Marine
recruiter and just said you know, here we go.
And he told me, and heconvinced me that I had to go
(03:42):
back to school because I wasconvinced that, you know, I'll
just get a GED and, you know, goon about my life.
And he's like, no, we don't dothat anymore.
So he convinced me to go backand get my high school diploma
and then, as soon as that wasdone, I went to recruit training
in Parris Island and off wewent, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So I have no idea my question is you know how you
mentioned that you're, that thatwas a big time, like a moment
in your life.
Do you think that that this is,this is just an off the wall uh
question?
But are you, do you think thatwe are in charge of, of
basically our destiny and ourfate in regards to, like, uh,
(04:22):
you know that that scenario, oris you know God up there just
pulling the strings and nomatter what we try to do?
We can try to run off on ourown beaten path, but he's going
to string us back in.
What do you?
What do you personally think onthat?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, I think that there's definitely a pathway
that's already built for us andas human beings we get in the
way of that higher plan andGod's plan.
I think he has the card that assoon as you're born or maybe
even conceive that you have thatpathway and the left and rights
(05:00):
and the circles, theroundabouts, if you will, that
you kind of go through in life.
I think that's us getting inour own way and not submitting,
you know, to the plan that'slaid out in front of us.
And I think for me there werecertain things that I had to do
(05:24):
to start the journey that I'm onand I think even the journey
that I'm continuing, you'reconstantly on right now, you
know, and that's just creatingawareness for mental health, and
that you don't have to go thelength of time that it has taken
me to figure some of thesethings out.
If I can share that with peopleto be able to shorten their
(05:47):
journey, to get a higher qualityof life or a better life to
live with those that they careabout, then I'm doing the
purpose that I'm still on earthto do.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Damn dude.
What a deep, authentic answer,man.
I appreciate that, ted.
So back at Parris Island.
What time frame is this?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
What year, january of 1990, was when I left Gotcha.
Yeah, Beautiful beautiful.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
All right.
What do you think?
Some of the things All right,so after, I assume, how many
years did you serve Many JeezDamn.
So that brought you pretty much.
What's that?
2012?
Yeah, 2012 that's holy smokes,man.
So there's so.
(06:34):
So walk us through.
Um, you know, whatever,whatever you want to disclose in
regards to your time in theservice and some struggle points
, or what have you.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, so less than a year into Marine Corps, I was in
Saudi Arabia, right.
So boom here, us is nowengrossed in a war that we
hadn't been in, at least for ourgeneration, and 19 years old,
full of it, ready to do whateverneeds to be done.
I had no idea what I was doingreally, but I had some good
(07:05):
leaders with me and over me.
So I was with 2nd Anglico, 2ndSurveillance Reconnaissance
Intelligence Group out ofLejeune, and the buildup was so
massive that there were so manyreserve units associated with us
.
So we were an active duty unit,but we had two large reserve
units with us.
So we were an active duty unitbut we had two large reserve
(07:27):
units with us.
And I can never figure this out.
But the reservists get kind ofpushed towards like the cool
stuff, right, and it's almostlike they had to validate being
activated, right.
And I never really realizedthat until you fast forward to
(07:51):
you know deployments when I wasa captain or a major, because I
did 10 years enlisted and then Iwas commissioned and then I
retired as a major.
So but we'll, we'll, we'llcircle circle around that.
But but we'll, we'll, we'llcircle circle around that.
But yeah, it's, it was just oneof those things where, as a 19
year old kid, you know, justgive me something to attack or
(08:13):
give me something to, you know,just impose my will on, because
that's all you kept hearing.
You know, the Marine Corps,marine Corps, people do impose
their will when they're notdoing the right thing.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Imposing their will and 19 years old.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, and you know, and all through high school I
mean you'd see conflict.
But but again, going back to my, my youth, would you have a
couple of TV channels?
You know, at least we did, andyou didn't get near the coverage
that's out there today.
So you just kind of knew whatyou were directly involved in
(08:54):
and yeah.
So it was weird.
And you know the writingletters and you know you didn't
get phone calls home back thenand stuff like that.
So you know your family waskind of uh-oh, what's happening
and and yeah, so it was just aweird maturation of of, hey, you
know, teenager here it is.
You know this is life and andwhat are you going to do with it
(09:14):
?
So, so I ended up coming backand stayed with the unit I was
in, worked pretty hard and endedup getting meritoriously
promoted to corporal and thenwithin probably six months, I
got orders to go to HMX-1, whichis the Marine One Helicopter
Squadron that flies.
The president, again, knewnothing about what it was.
I just I was jumping out ofplanes, it was in the field a
(09:37):
lot.
I enjoyed that, that's what Iwanted to stay doing.
And they were like no, this isan accepted command which, when
they say you're the guy, you'rethe guy and you're going so.
So I ended up going up there,and another six months later I
find myself in the White Houseliaison office and it was-, who
was the?
president, at the time Clinton.
(09:57):
So it was Bush senior and thenClinton.
So, yeah, so it was just one ofthose times where, again, at
this point this is 92, so I'm 21, 22 years old, and this is a
big deal.
I mean, you got the mostpowerful person in the world and
(10:22):
you're responsible for thesafety transition from you know
whether it's an event to thehelicopter and the helicopter to
Air Force One, or Air Force Oneto or Marine One to a motorcade
what have you?
You know, that's kind of what.
You're on the ground to makesure that there's a safe landing
spot, the landing zone issecure, and you work with other
(10:43):
agencies Secret service, thelocal fire, local law
enforcement, things like that.
So, yeah, it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
That's a huge deal.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, again, as a young guy I mean in your early
20s that's a lot ofresponsibility.
So growing up I had a lot ofmaturing very quickly, which
served me, I think, very well,because I went to Okinawa after
that and committed to getting myfour-year degree and I ended up
(11:16):
completing that in two and ahalf years.
So, you know, I went to nightschool, I took tests.
Anything that would give mecollege credit towards a degree
I did because I knew that wasthe end game for me.
And then from there I went toofficer candidate school and was
commissioned a secondlieutenant in the Marine Corps.
(11:36):
All of that timeframe was from92 to 90, 99, right, it's kind
of crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
You've accomplished more in that seven year or six
and a half, whatever you want tocall it seven year timeframe
than you know most people havetheir entire lives.
I mean it just is what it is.
I mean you're right, you'reescorting the president on
Marine One and then you're goingto school getting a four year
degree in two and a half years.
That's unheard of.
What's the biggest differencebetween the officer side versus
(12:11):
the enlisted in the Corps?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Well, I think, for enlisted guys, every Marine has
a job right and it's militaryoccupational specialty.
This is what we're paying you todo, this is what you're trained
to do.
And then, when you throw theofficer side of it, there's a
lot of leadership, command typethings that we want to be able
(12:46):
to plug and play you anywherearound the world.
So there's all these IA billets, individual augment billets and
things like that.
They want to be able to justgrab an officer and be able to
shove them somewhere and he'sgoing to be expected to lead and
be able to shove them somewhere.
And he's going to be expectedto lead.
He may not be expected to havethe technical expertise, but as
(13:10):
a Marine officer, you are goingto be expected to lead and
you're going to be expected tohold those Marines to a high
standard or hold those militaryguys because there's a lot of
joint stuff at that point You'reexpected to hold them at a high
standard and make sure thatthey are trained, equipped,
guided and taken care of toexecute the mission that they
(13:30):
have at hand.
You know so providing a lot oftop cover from guys trying to,
or organizations I say guys, butyou know that are trying to
limit your resources or limityour access to certain things.
You have to, you know, be thatumbrella that protects your guys
, so gives them the opportunityto do the things they need to do
(13:53):
.
So I don't know if that makessense, but, yeah, I understood,
of course, 100% understood.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It's just I guess they pay.
I just you weren't some butterbar off the street?
You know what I mean?
You already did the enlistedside, so that's got to play a
huge benefit when you're takingover and leading.
You know a platoon or what haveyou?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
For me, I will say that the best officers are prior
enlisted, coupled only by theworst officers are prior
enlisted Right, really Okay.
It sounds ridiculous, but in myopinion, if you are a prior
enlisted officer a Mustang,whatever I know we call them I'm
pretty sure everybody elsecalls them that or something
(14:41):
like that there's really none ofthose guys that are middle of
the road.
You're either really reallygood or you're really really bad
, and and it all depends on yourexperience as an illicit guy,
right.
So for me, I feel like I wasreally really good and it's not
(15:03):
biased and thinking that I'vehad probably about a month ago I
had a kid that I NJP'd right,reduced him in rank, took him to
Afghanistan, promoted him inAfghanistan to the rank that I
took from him before, and abouta month ago, month and a half
ago, he sends me a message onFacebook saying and about a
(15:24):
month ago, a month and a halfago, he sends me a message on
Facebook saying hey, sir, youknow I appreciate you.
You were the best leader that Iever had and you know I thank
you for doing what you did,because all you did was hold me
accountable and you held me tothe standard that is expected.
It wasn't your standard, itwasn't my standard, it's the
Marine Corps standard, whatever,right, and those types of
(15:46):
things happen a lot.
You know so.
So when I say that the MarineCorps to this day you know
there's lieutenant colonels thatwork for me as lieutenants, and
(16:09):
a lot of that is just timingand longevity and things like
that.
But when you're sticking aroundthat long, you're sticking
around for a reason.
And when I was submitting mycommissioning package, I had a
lieutenant ask me well, whywould you do that?
Of all the things you'veaccomplished as a sergeant and
(16:31):
all these things, I was blownaway because of guys like you.
I don't want to work for a guylike you because you have no
idea what you're doing and youdon't care to know because
you're in charge.
All right, I never, ever had totell anyone.
(16:52):
I was in charge.
When I walked in the room, theyknew I was the guy you know and
I think that's a big difference.
The other side of that and I'veworked for a guy at Parris
Island.
I went back to Parris Island asa company commander, so I
started off as a seriescommander and then I went as a
(17:13):
company commander and I workedfor a company commander who was
a prior enlisted guy and he hadto let everybody know that he
was in charge every single day.
And I just I don't, I don'tagree with that.
I don't think that you, ifyou're in charge, you know and
you know every, every unit hastheir their little command board
(17:34):
photos and stuff like that.
You know.
So you see this guy's face andI, I, I actually told him.
I said, listen, we see yourpicture on the wall nonstop.
We know you're in charge.
You constantly telling us thatyou're in charge.
He would say something likewe're going to do it this way
because I'm in charge what?
(17:56):
Come on man.
So that's what I mean.
You get the extreme.
And I had another one.
He was a second lieutenant whowas a prior staff sergeant and
just not good, not good, right.
And it was because when he was,you know, a junior Marine or
(18:19):
what have you, he had alieutenant.
Oh no, I'm sorry.
He had a lieutenant or no, I'msorry.
He had a platoon sergeant, astaff sergeant that didn't go to
bat for him with his platooncommander and he held that
against his staff sergeant.
So when he became a lieutenanthe had nothing to do or no love
(18:43):
lost for his staff NCOs becausehe was never taken care of and
I'm like that's it, that's,that's not how it works.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
That's the problem with society, society as a whole
.
Right there, like you know,racism for, for, for instance,
one black dude beats up a whiteguy or bullies him, that white
guy is going to hate the.
Not only that, a lot of times awhite guy will hate the black
guy forever.
Every black guy will justcorrelate right to that, rather
(19:13):
than realizing that every singlehuman being is different in who
they are.
And you know it shouldn't.
You can't judge one based offof another experience in this
life.
I mean you just can't it basedoff of another experience in
this life.
I mean you just can't.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
But it's just like law enforcement, right Law
enforcement.
So I was in a motorcycle clubwhen I got out of the Marine
Corps and was in there foralmost 10 years and you know
there was ACAB, ac, a, b allcops are bad, right what?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
same exact thing right.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So the the funny thing for me, it's like they're
doing a job.
That's all they're doing, right?
If they pull you over forspeeding, you were speeding.
Your interactions determinewhether you get a ticket or not.
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
That's yeah.
Yeah, you're usually rightabout that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
So the fact is, you get pissed off at these guys,
because they hold youaccountable for doing something
wrong.
And you know what else.
It is the media.
They want divide.
They want to divide betweenhuman beings.
They want that because if theyfeel it's their fuel to their
little like fire that they tryto put all across the airwaves,
which they're really good at,obviously, and like they want,
they want to divide, so they'regonna exacerbate.
You know, god forbid again.
(20:43):
Vice versa, just like you'retalking about the cop, like a
cop black guy, maybe he'sresisting arrest a bit and he
goes to try to grab the cop'sgun and then he gets killed.
That'll be blasted everywhere.
You know, racism is alive andwell in America, but that's
simply not the case.
And it's like when people startto differentiate and maybe do
(21:04):
some studies on their own andrealize, yes, are there racist
people out there?
A hundred percent.
Are there bad cops?
Yes, are there bad black guys?
Yes, but there's good versusbad.
It's not necessarily the colorof their skin, where they were
born or anything like that, butthat's what everything wants to
get pointed to.
It's kind of sick.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
And you're absolutely right, it's good versus evil.
And you're absolutely right,it's good versus evil.
And the gun laws.
Everyone's talking about gunlaws.
Guns don't kill people.
Bad people with guns killpeople, right, but a bad person?
If a bad person wants to dosomething bad, they're going to
find a way to do something bad.
They're going to have theillegal guns anyway, they're
(21:43):
going to get them.
So it's like you know, and itgoes back to what we talked
about earlier was the whole, youknow, the faith portion.
Right, if a large percentagewould read the Bible and
understand the Bible, everythingthat's happening in the world
is in the Bible.
(22:05):
It's a fact right, my churchhere just did a series, and they
always do a series, but theydid a series on constitutional
governance and things-blowing,right, because things that are
happening.
(22:26):
He throws all the scripturetogether and then, you know,
like just overlays it and at theend of it all, if we could
understand that one we're not incharge of anything you know, of
anything you know and holdourselves accountable and look
(22:47):
at our neighbors as equals,regardless of status, for
anything you know, life wouldn'tbe near as near as difficult.
You know, and you're right, man, that book of Revelation is
it's.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
It's crazy.
Everything has been prophesiedby, you know, back to the old
testament.
You know daniel ezekiel,whoever they are, the prophets,
basically everything that'sgoing on, the nations that are
rising against israel as wespeak, and you know judgment
days.
You know I'm no expert on thismatter by any means, but
judgment days probably rightaround the corner I mean yeah,
yeah, which is scary.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
You know which is scary?
Because you think about therapture and the natural
disasters and things like that.
I mean, those are just to meanyway, and again, I'm not a
theologist or theologian orwhatever you know, but I know
(23:46):
what resonates with me when I,when I sit and listen to you
know, my pastor and things likethat, and it's like these are,
these are just signs, and to me,the way I receive it is, these
are signs that God is saying heyman, my people get your shit
together.
Right my people get your shittogether, right, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
So get your shit together because if not, then
you know, here we are.
So, yeah, that's pretty much.
You know he's telling me.
I know for a fact, he's tellingme that direct, like every
single day.
Just hearing your voice sayssay, it is just that's.
I mean, it could be a form ofhim speaking through you,
directly to me or anybody elselistening to this get your shit
together.
For me that's exactly what Ineed to do, because time's
ticking and I know time'sticking, but I just keep, like
(24:38):
you know, pushing it off andpushing it off and still living
in the way I want to live, andit's just just like it's not
working anymore.
So I got it, I got topersonally get my shit together.
It's hopefully, you know, ifsomething were to happen, right,
this second, hopefully he's.
He's merciful.
But speaking of the rapture,ted, let me ask you something.
Do you go by, ted, ever?
By the way?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah, so Ted is fine, because my dad's not sitting
behind me, right?
So I'm actually a junior andearly on in my career, my adult
life or what have you, I went byTed and then I was home and my
sister calls me Ted and she'slike hey, ted, and my dad, I
(25:22):
said yeah, and my dad's likethat's me, you know, I'm like so
so it's, it's, it's like youknow.
And then, and then when Ibecame older, you know it's like
teddy.
Teddy is actually my birth name, so it's not theodore, it's not
, it is, it's legit teddy on mybirth certificate and everything
(25:44):
else.
And uh, so I, so I'm like justembrace it, you know.
I mean, yeah, whatever, so, butuh, yeah, so either way, I'm
good either way.
And uh, you know, I know, Iknow who you're talking to,
we're good, all right.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So let's, let's, uh, let's, let me try to.
I wanted to ask something onthe rapture real quick, because
like that's, that's a phenomenonor whatever I can't even say
that word, but that's somethingthat's like very out of this
world, right?
So If that were to happen, ifthat happened, right as we were
right here, you just vanished.
I would know for a fact that,ok, like now I'm getting my shit
(26:23):
together One hundred percent,like these people didn't just
disappear, but somehow, I don'tknow.
It's just.
That's a hard concept for me tograsp, but some people believe
in it, some people don't.
It's just very out of thisworld, which is God in a sense,
but it's like, you know,supernatural, almost.
You know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
No, and I agree, natural, almost you know.
Yeah, no, and I agree, and Ithink, uh, I think sometimes
people are taken way too soonRight, and and it's never for us
to to understand that thegrieving aspect and the pain and
the anger and all those thingsand the questions of faith and
things like that, why, that'sthe human side of life and death
(27:10):
, right, that's for me, havingdeployed multiple times, my
question to myself was alwaysdid I do enough?
Did I train these guys hardenough?
Did I make the right decisions?
Did I do everything in my powerto keep us all safe, all
prosperous and able to come home?
(27:31):
So, when you deal with thosethings, the only way you can
process those and the only wayyou can deal with those is
understanding that it's not yourdecision.
And I'll take it one stepfurther.
So, two guys walking down thestreet, one takes a sniper round
(27:55):
, killed, instantly.
Right, everyone takes cover.
What have you?
Years ago, my brain processedthis, as you know, very
difficult, like how or why is myprayer chain stronger than his
right?
My prayer chain Stronger thanhis Right?
(28:16):
Because If, if One person wasgoing to Be killed that day, was
his people not praying as hardas my?
people, you know what I mean and, yeah, and I don't know the
answer to that and I never will,and there probably is not an
answer to that, but it was.
It was me Trying to make senseof you know why him, why not me,
(28:44):
or why not me this time, or whynot what happened.
So trying to make sense of thatlegitimately drove me crazy.
And, uh, the moral side of, andthe moral injury aspect of,
(29:05):
ptsd, right, ptsd or PTS,whatever you want to call it is,
is nothing more than surviving,right, you were placed in a
moment that you had to survive,right, that's that's what
triggers the PTSD moments, andsome people say it's fight or
flight.
I think for me at this point,there's four of them.
(29:25):
There's fight, flight, fog andfreeze.
Right, so you're going to doone of those four things in a
moment of danger survival, asurvival scenario.
So fight, flight, freeze or fog.
(29:46):
So, as a commander, was I makingclouded decisions that I freeze
just long enough to makesomething substantial not happen
or give enough time to makeanother choice?
(30:11):
So there's a lot of that thatyou question as a Monday morning
quarterback, instead oftrusting in the faith that is
laid on you and the grace andthe mercy that's laid on you
every single day.
So, trying to understand someof those things I never have and
(30:34):
maybe never will, except forthe fact that over the last
couple of years I have really, Iguess, begun to realize for me
to move forward, I have toaccept things, I have to
acknowledge that they happenedand I have to accept the outcome
, as that was the plan that Idon't control.
(30:55):
You know, I never controlledthose things.
I only made the choices that Ifelt were the best for the
situation.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, that's the deep stuff, Ted.
A quick question how manydeployments total?
Six total?
How many do Iraq versusAfghanistan?
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Oh, let's see.
So I was in a first Gulf warcourse, and then, oh three, I
was in Iraq.
Seven, oh eight, iraq, oh nineand 10, uh, afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
So that's a lot of wear and tear, yeah, a lot, and
then um and then um and then 01.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I was in uh at european command of stuttgart,
germany, and kind of bounced inand out of areas from from over
there.
So I was responsible for theGeorgia training and equip
program, which in the PankeseeGorge.
(32:00):
That was where the Russiansinvaded Afghanistan the first
time and got their asses handedto them.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
So we sent who was the US backing?
Speaker 2 (32:13):
The Georgians, yeah, okay, okay.
So trying to train them to makesure that they were built up
from coming through that gorge,escaping Afghanistan, because we
(32:42):
were going on the other side.
You know so, but you know so.
It was just one of those thingswhere I was gone quite a bit
and, you know, got to do a lotof cool stuff, got to meet a lot
of cool people, a lot of greatpeople that raised the right
(33:03):
hand to support and defend theConstitution against all enemies
, foreign and domestic.
You know a presidentialelection that is doing that
exact, that exact thing.
You know that, uh, I stayedaround the Marine Corps for so
(33:24):
long because I wanted to leavemy sons a better place to live,
you know, and and a better,better place where maybe they
didn't have to deal with thestuff that you know I deal with,
or or things like that.
And you know, hell, it's worsenow than it's ever been.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Think so you know this.
Yeah, that's an accuratestatement.
This it's crazy man and it'slike sometimes I question, like
the greater the greater.
I mean as a whole, and againthis could be considered
blasphemous, but as a whole, doyou think the us is, is is
generally or genuinely concernedabout its people, or is it more
(34:02):
so, just like maybe a verysmall portion of those people,
very, very small portion, theycare about and that's how they
make their, that's how theymaneuver.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, so.
And again, this's how theymaneuver.
Yeah, so, uh, you know.
And again, this is.
These are, these are myopinions, but I I don't think
they are by and large.
I think I think people that aremaking decisions live in a
place that the worst of theworst aren't going to show up at
(34:35):
their doorstep Right so theworst of the worst aren't going
to show up at their doorstep,right.
So people that continue to makethese decisions like there's no
issues with the border, there'sno issues with violent crime,
there's no issues with hungry USfolks, americans living on the
(34:58):
streets and things like that.
They're not subjected to thatevery single day, you know, and
those people don't want to diginto the stuff that's being felt
by guys like me, guys like youthat you know.
You I had a parking ticket thatI went to fight downtown San
(35:19):
Antonio and I'm not bullshittingwhen I tell you that I pulled
into the parking lot and therewere nine shell casings on the
ground in the parking spot rightnext to mine.
The police station is rightacross the street street.
So the people that are makingdecisions to protect the
citizens, protect the border,protect the fundamental rights
(35:48):
of US citizens don't see theatrocities that are being thrust
on us every single day?
Short answer is no.
I don't think, by and large,the leadership of America is in
a place that cares about theAmerican citizen.
Right, when I grew up and againsmall-town America, and I'll
tell you, I grew up in a familythat my grandfather was a stout
(36:11):
Democrat, my mom, to this day,is a stout Democrat I was
protected small town America,right.
Well, now you don't see that,right, you see the.
You see the I was.
(36:32):
I never thought that anythingbad would happen to me.
Right, and America was a legitsuperpower.
And then the first presidentialelection that I ever remember
was Carter and Reagan.
And we had a we had in theclassroom, we had like a little
(37:09):
mock, you know, presidentialelection and half the class had
to do research on Carter, halfthe class had to do research on
Reagan.
Then we had an election.
Well, I voted for Reaganbecause I thought he was the
better choice.
Grandparents and my mom, when Igot home from school, all hell
broke loose, you know, becauseit's a straight D.
You know, you could, you could,if there was a D on Scooby-Doo.
He was getting a vote from myfamily at the time, right, so,
but that was like when Iremember and looking back and
(37:30):
there's some times there where Ididn't really care, but that
was like a defining moment againas we talked about like, wow,
you know, we get away from whois in the best interest of
America, who is in the bestinterest of protecting the
foundational energy that we asAmericans should promote.
(37:51):
You know, I want America to be asuperpower, like it was when I
grew up.
You know I want America to be asuperpower like it was when I
grew up.
You know nobody's afraid of us.
We're getting to the pointwhere nobody's afraid of the
military, the US military, right, because our hands are so tight
.
So get back to the point ofbuilding America as the
superpower that says you knowwhat, when we say, don't do that
(38:12):
, you had better not do thatbecause we will carry out what
we said we were going to do.
You know, and I think there'sonly for me you know there is.
There is one option, at leastthis year, and I hope, I hope in
four years.
I hope this year we flip it andthen I hope in four more years
(38:35):
that we have the best possiblecandidate that's going to
continue to preserve theAmerican people and the values
that we hold and we grew up with, because, if not, it's scary to
think about our children andour grandchildren and
generations to come, because weare going in the wrong direction
(38:55):
and we're going to be one ofthese countries very soon that
are holding our hand out tryingto get something from other
people, and that should never bethe case.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
If Harris is elected again.
That's probably exactly wherewe're headed Now.
I'll be voting for Trump.
I think he did a fantastic jobon the global stage as far as
keeping us out of battles andwars with, you know, strength
(39:28):
through vigilance.
But at the same time, ted, I dothink that, no matter which
president's elected, it's only amatter of time before one of
these retards you know you can'treally say that word anymore
but one of these retards thatare the dictator or president of
their nation to start pushingbuttons and wiping out.
You know mass amounts of peopleand you know nuclear fallout
(39:53):
taking place or something alongthose lines is coming relatively
soon.
But yeah, voting for Trump willprobably delay that
significantly, I would hope.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Well, yeah, and I think so.
And you know I don't likepolitics, I'll be honest with
you, because I feel everyone'strying to sell you something and
it's like, hey, look at me, butit's not really look at me.
It's just like here I am, butlook over here at how bad.
I can tell you this guy isright, or this gal.
In this current instance it'sthis gal.
Look how bad she is right.
(40:24):
So I'm not a fan of politics,but I will say this the country
is in dire straits because wehave allowed so many to cross
the border and we don't evenknow who's here now.
And when you talk about theSpringfield Ohio folks and
that's not too far from where Iwas born- what happened in
(40:46):
Springfield.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
What's happened in Springfield, Ohio.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Well, they have.
So the population ofSpringfield, I think, is in the
50,000s Right, don't quote mynumbers, but I think it's
roughly 50,000, 60,000,.
Right in Springfield they justbrought in not just, but over
this past cycle 20,000 Haitians.
(41:10):
So think about that.
A third right of the populationin a small town in America is
now their own entity, basicallyRight.
So they don't, they don't speakEnglish.
Some of them that do you knowit's broken.
(41:31):
They're given the debit cardwith, you know, $1,500 a month,
if not more, to get theirgroceries and they got housing
and they got all these things.
(41:54):
It's like what about thehomeless veterans down in
Philadelphia right now?
Where's the American dreamright?
Where's the American dreamright?
Where's my American dream right?
Because the America that I grewup and the America that I
fought for and things like thatI wanted everyone to have the
opportunity to live.
Feel, you know, the Americandream and we don't even provide
(42:15):
that for our own citizens.
Now, you know, and that'sthat's the crime I think in the
political state is like when youconstantly give people that do
not come into this countrylegally right and legal
immigration.
I'm all for, because themelting pot, that's how we
(42:35):
increase our diversity and allthose things.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
You're not a bigot racist who doesn't want anybody
besides white people runningaround in America.
No, Listen.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
I can't even say that I've tried that route.
You know what I mean.
So it's like yeah, because,again, I've traveled all over
the world.
I've lived in a lot ofdifferent places, to include
outside the US, and people justwant to be people, be disruptive
(43:18):
to this country.
Why would you not try and do itthe right way?
Because there's plenty ofopportunity and there's plenty
of options to come into the USthe right way, so why would you
not do that?
Why would you show up to beclassified by some and by the
majority as an illegal or acriminal?
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Because you are, because you are it's kind of
nuts, because they say that,like these other countries I
mean, imagine us, imagine the uswe take all of our you know
murderers and rapists and we, weliterally plane them and drop,
drop, drop them off in a foreignland.
See, you guys, take care,thanks for doing nothing for our
(43:54):
country.
But besides destroying it andnow you can go destroy that
country as well it's just likeit doesn't make any sense, but
you know why?
So the Democrats are thepolitical figures that are
holding these offices.
Now, I don't know if it'sexactly in these cities or what,
but in general, they want thisto happen because they're
undocumented and essentiallythey can.
(44:16):
That's why they're pushing forthe no IDs at voting, because
then they can vote Democrat andthey win on the election and
continue this, this path ofdestruction.
Essentially.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Through and through.
There's so much movement fromNew York to Florida or
California to Texas or all these, all these very quasi liberal
areas to stout conservativeareas For the same reason.
(44:49):
Well, if your state or yourarea is so screwed up and you
don't want to live there, theonly way you get to live
someplace else is by changingthe way you do business.
And your business at that pointis the way you do life and the
way you make decisions and theway you support your neighbor
and support your country and notbe so entitled.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
The expectations and the entitlement have ruined our
country immensely, so it's uhyou're not into into politics
too much, teddy, but let me saythis is we need people like you
in in held positions because youknow, it's just I don't know
how, but it seems like all like.
It seems like anytime I turnaround the worst, mainly on both
(45:37):
sides they're just like theworst type of people.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Sometimes they're just like you know they have no
issues, you know daddy's moneygrowing up and somehow they're
in these offices and it's justlike it's crazy yeah, or or the,
the career politicians that, uh, you know, started, you know,
in a in a local seat when theywere just out of college, and
(45:59):
now they've been doing it for 40years and they just keep moving
up to a higher spot, and thingslike that.
It's like but what have youdone?
What have you done other thanjust go into through the motions
?
Get the guys that want to makea difference, get the guys that
(46:20):
understand the higher calling,so to speak.
You know, because I believethat there is a, a spiritual
side to to politics, and it'sbeen documented as well, and
it's in the Bible as well thatyou know there is a biblical
(46:41):
leadership and there's, likeit's politically or it's
biblically backed policy orpolitics.
You know so, and again, I'mprobably jumbling all that up,
but, uh, but it's out there.
I mean, and and the educationpiece does not come from
(47:03):
mainstream media.
The education piece doesn'tcome from, you know, your, your
neighbor, who, who heard, youknow, at the corner market.
You know, whatever, we owe itto our, our children and the
future generations to educateourselves and to make the better
choices for our future.
(47:25):
And our future starts now.
It's not just a matter of well,you know, in four years, if the
Democrats win again.
Well, in four years, no, it hasto start right now, because
this is a problem that hasn'thappened overnight.
It's something that our countryhas diminished in three and a
(47:45):
half years and I'm afraid to seewhat it's going to look like in
four years if the Democratswent again.
It's going to be scary.
If the Democrats win again,it's going to be scary as small
(48:13):
as the school board, your localschool board, or the mayor, the
county commissioner, all thesethings that start locally.
We're going to lose ourneighborhoods, we're going to
lose our communities, we'regoing to lose the small
infrastructure that has grownAmerica since its founding.
And it has to start somewhere.
(48:36):
But the people have to come outand they have to educate
themselves to figure out what isit that I truly want and expect
out of a country that issupposed to be the strongest
country in the world, asuperpower that everybody talks
about?
The American dream.
We don't talk about theUzbekistan dream or the whatever
(49:02):
.
I mean.
I want to live the Zimbabwedream.
No, we don't do that.
But you damn sure around theworld know what the American
dream is.
Around the world know what theAmerican dream is it's time that
politicians start putting inplace things that protect
(49:23):
Americans and catapult thoseopportunities for Americans to
find that American dream,because it's here and we're
pissing it away and we're givingit away to folks that are
undeserving and don't evenbelong here.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Amen, Ted.
That's well said.
What is on your agenda nowadays, Ted?
What do you got going on?
I know you got a nonprofit.
Why don't you talk?
Speaker 2 (49:46):
to us about that a bit.
So the last couple of years, mypersonal journey and I'll give
you the snapshot.
So in April 16th so I retiredin 2000 from the Marine Corps 22
years of service, kind ofbounced around a little bit, was
just not really in a good place, mental health wise, and was
struggling, find identity andpurpose and things like that.
(50:08):
So really struggling.
And April 16th, 2016, I put a45 pistol in my mouth and I was
not happy with what I had doneand who I was and the role model
that I was lacking for my sons,my three-year-old son, who's 12
(50:31):
now.
He came around the corner.
I thought he was napping.
He came around the corner andasked me for juice and instantly
kind of changed my life, savedmy life.
It was one of those thingswhere I knew at that point that
I had a higher purpose and so Ijust started advocating for
(50:57):
veterans and trying to improvetheir quality of life as as a
model, if you will, as atemplate, so to speak, because
you know, I retired in 12, likeI said, so we were four, almost
five years in at this point andonly until 22, 2022, I was, I
(51:25):
was grinding.
That's a decade.
That's a decade of a life thatis spent every single day trying
to not end it.
That's tough.
It's tough to live like that.
I just continued to fight, tofight, continue to try and
(51:51):
figure out why I was still hereand how I could make my life
better but make those around mebetter.
But more so and mostimportantly is to get folks to
understand that it is thatimportant to be able to identify
, acknowledge and accept whereyou are in life and then change
it if you're not happy with it.
(52:12):
I went down to Mexico in 2023.
I did some treatment down therewith the Mission Within.
Life-changing psychedelic.
Psychedelic treatment was super, super impactful.
It was probably the mostpowerful, most painful, most
(52:34):
rewarding and most healing thingthat I'd ever done.
At that point Came back and Iwas in what I thought a good
place, you know kind of recoveryand things like that.
But my head was still soscrewed up that I couldn't make
ends meet, couldn't understandthings.
(52:54):
So I ended up getting acceptedto a place called Marcus
Institute for Brain Health.
So I've had five head injuriesI have a traumatic brain injury,
head injuries I have atraumatic brain injury and the
Marcus Institute.
I went earlier this year andinpatient and that was probably
(53:16):
the most impactful place thatI've ever been.
That allowed me to understandwhat's happening, because as
guys, we want to understand.
If something is bothering us,we want to understand what it is
and then we want to fix it.
As a Marine Corps officer, Iwas tasked with fixing problems
(53:43):
for 12 years, as a platoonsergeant.
You add another five or sixyears of that, so you know we
got almost two decades of justfixing problems, and now I
couldn't even understand my ownproblems nor start to fix it,
because I didn't know what washappening.
So I get accepted, marcus, wego up there.
(54:05):
It's inpatient, which it'sexhausting.
Every single day was just, youknow, boom, boom, boom, with
therapies and differentmodalities and it's all
interdisciplinary.
So it's a, it's just a greatorganization.
But this was the first timethat they actually started
explaining things to me thatmade sense.
And the VA, as good as they arein a lot of things, I feel that
(54:29):
they missed the mark in mentalhealth and they missed the mark
in traumatic brain injury andthings like that, because they
umbrella and they blanket treatPTSD and when I got to Marcus,
they were just chopping thisthing up, you know, making it
make sense.
So when you have a blow to thehead, your vestibular gets kind
(54:53):
of off, right, vestibular beingyour balance.
Okay, well, if I duck down,you'll see like I got scars all
over my head.
I got a couple from deploymentsand things like that.
I had some of them.
I got a couple from deploymentsand things like that, but a lot
of them are just nicks andwhatever, because my depth
perception was just crazy I'dwalk into a door, walk into a
(55:13):
wall right, bend over to pick upsomething in the garage and get
up too fast and hit theworkbench, whatever.
Well, all that stuff is brainrelated, right.
And I started thinking like,okay, well, it's just me.
Well, even when you walk downthe street and I would have the
(55:35):
boys with me and I felt likethey were like bumping into me
and zigging and zagging, no,that was me, because my brain
was not observing everything.
All it was doing was trying tokeep me upright and walking
straight.
Right, because your brain, ahealthy brain, all that stuff is
autonomous, right, it's justlike boom, you get up and you
(55:57):
walk.
You know, well, when you have abrain injury, you have to think
about getting up and walking andthings like that and I never
knew any of that.
I never knew that.
You know, when I get headachesin my eyes because they're tired
, because they're jumping backand forth, because I can't focus
on I think I'm trying to focuson something, but my eyes are
(56:19):
going somewhere else, you know.
So you know the hearing and thefocus and even your speech.
Like I knew that my brain andmy mouth would not sync up,
especially if I was tired or Ijust got stressed out or I was
doing whatever, and you create astammer and all these things.
So when I got to Marcus, theyjust dissected all these things
(56:41):
and they started implementing.
You know your brain is somewhat, you can retrain it.
You know the vestibular you canretrain it.
And your eyes or muscles, youcan retrain them.
And it's all these things that,legitimately, the past I guess
four or five months have beenearth shattering in my life.
(57:05):
Right?
So you increase your quality oflife by 5%.
Well, the ripple effect forthose around you is double that.
Right, because when I would getpissed off, that I hit my head
or I walked into a room and Icouldn't remember something.
Well, now you're irritatedabout everything and it's hard
because your brain is alreadyexhausted.
(57:27):
So you can't get that backuntil you go silent, right, or
lay down.
Well, the thing is is when yourbrain is constantly active,
you're not going to be able toget the quality sleep that our
bodies need to recover, right?
So you got the five pillars ofdeath right, you got PTSD, you
(57:49):
got TBI, you got chronic pain,you got insomnia and you have
mood which is depression,anxiety, all those things right.
So I know that I live with allof those every single day, right
?
What Marcus helped meunderstand is I can lessen these
so they're not as impacted, butmore so that I remain in
(58:14):
control now, because when youdon't understand these things,
it's hard to acknowledge whatyou don't understand.
So now that I understand thesebetter and I can acknowledge
them, then I can control them.
And those five, in my opinion,are what lead to veterans taking
their lives every single daybecause they don't understand
(58:35):
these and they're so overwhelmedthat something has to give.
And I believe that these fatalfive are the thing that leads to
.
You know, we can call it the 22a day, but whatever that number
is, it's too high and this isdirectly attributed to that.
(58:55):
So, being at Marcus and theother great thing that they
allowed me to understand is thePTSD that I live with day in,
day out, is more so on the moralinjury side and the burden of
command, and that's the firsttime in over a decade that I've
(59:15):
ever heard moral injury, becausethe grief and the shame, all
those things, the burden ofcommand, when you question
yourself like, am I a bad person, did I do a bad thing?
You know, it's all these thingsthat weigh on you because you
(59:38):
don't know that door being ableto say, okay, a moral injury is
not, it's something that thatyou have to process in your own
way.
Uh, but you can only do that ifyou see it and you, you know it
, and you and you start to uh,you know, develop your, your
(01:00:01):
acceptance of that, you know so.
So that's that's where I'm atnow, right Right here, right
today.
And I shared that versionbecause in 2013, I founded First
Coast Heroes Outreach, which isa 501C3 veteran nonprofit, and
(01:00:21):
we started doing mental healthand we started to take care of
Marines and things like that.
And then we've since rebrandedto what we are now and we took
on first responders as well asveterans.
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
So the name remained the same it did.
Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Well, it originally was something else and now what
we are now is what we are FirstCoast Heroes Outreach, so.
But what I have pushed us to dois get away from mental health
in the treatment of that,because there's so many folks
out there.
So what I do just like joiningyou on this podcast and having
(01:01:01):
this opportunity is I try to getawareness out there that these
things aren't umbrellaed.
It's not a cookie cutter.
Mental health is not a cookiecutter.
So, providing education,providing awareness, providing
treatment opportunities andvarious modalities that are
available to veterans and firstresponders because if you just
(01:01:24):
go to your doctor, you just goto your VA, you're going to get
medicine and you're go to yourdoctor, you just go to your,
your VA, you're going to getmedicine and you're going to get
counseling Right, and I'm notsaying neither one of those are
effective, but I'm telling youthat the number one impact for
me is between my ears,understanding what is happening,
(01:01:44):
understanding what is going onand what caused me to lose my
shit at a second.
And so, First Coast HeroesOutreach, what we do now is try
to educate, advocate and getawareness out there, for you are
your biggest proponent of yourhealthcare, of your wellness.
(01:02:08):
You are the only one that caresas much as you do about you.
There's opportunities for us andwe try to be proactive in
delivering things like this,because there's crisis centers
all over the country.
There's crisis centers all overthe country.
There's crisis numbers all overthe country.
(01:02:29):
You can pick up and dial 988,you know.
Or everyone wants to help forcrisis.
You know crisis happens.
Everyone wants to flood thereand help.
Right, Where's the fuckingpeople that try to prevent
crisis?
Right, that's what we're tryingto do.
We're trying to get toindividuals, get to folks, get
(01:02:49):
to guys that may be on the cuspof you know what?
I'm losing my shit.
I have no idea what's happening.
That's the guys we want to getto.
That's the guys we want to talkto, and I don't want somebody
to deal with this for over adecade, like I've dealt with.
Right, I don't want so much.
(01:03:12):
If you're in the midst of itright now and you reach out to
me, we will figure out a waythat you cut your struggle in
half.
So, if you're in the midst ofsomething that you feel is
becoming overwhelming and youneed some outlet, if you reach
out to me, we will work ourtails off to make sure that you
get to a place that is going tohelp you, Not after the fact,
(01:03:35):
because we want to work andensure that your quality of life
increases and you can.
You can build your, your bestlife, living for your family and
that ripple effect for forother people.
So it's just, it's just one ofthose things that I, I, I truly
(01:03:59):
believe in the quality of lifepiece, and I'll, I'll share this
, this with you and then I'll,I'll shut my my mouth, but the I
always thought, when I was inPensacola, Florida, every week I
saw a psychologist, a socialworker, a psychiatrist, and I
went to group therapy rightEvery week.
(01:04:20):
So that's four appointmentstalking, touch-feely stuff every
week.
And I was on my motorcycle.
I went to the post office tomail a package and I pulled in
and some guy was like you know,oh, you got a little close, you
know, I'm like no, sir, I didn't.
And he's like well, that's whyguys like you are splattered all
over the highways.
Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
Wait, who was?
Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
this.
This was just a random yeah,just some random guy at the post
office, right?
So unbeknownst to him.
I had just gotten word thatmorning that one of my best
friends, a Marine, was killed onhis motorcycle on his on his
way to work, right.
So I'm processing this.
I know I have a psychappointment and I had to mail
(01:05:04):
this package.
I mail it and he's just jawjacking and I finally just said
you know what, sir?
Here's the deal.
I'm going in, I'm going to mailmy package.
If you're sitting here, when Icome out I'm going to drag you
out of your fucking truck andI'm going to beat your ass.
And some old gal was walking in,right, and I held the door for
(01:05:25):
her because I'm a gentleman.
So I held the door.
The old gal walks in and she'sstanding in front of me and I'm
just facing the counter.
I'm here to mail my package,that's it.
You know, just standing therewith my package, and this old
gal in front of me, she keptlooking out, looking out,
looking out.
And then, just as she gotcalled to the counter, she turns
(01:05:46):
around and she says I guess hedecided to leave.
And I just kind of shook myhead, I said, yes, man, and I
mailed my package and she waitedfor me.
I opened up the door and shewalked out and she's like well,
sweetheart, you have a good day.
I said, yes, ma'am, you too.
So I go to my psych appointmentand I'm sharing the story.
And I said you know?
I said yes, ma'am, you too.
So I go to my psych appointmentand I'm sharing the story.
(01:06:06):
And I said you know?
I said it's things like thatthat send me from zero to 100.
Right Like zero to 100, justlike that.
This was the first other timethat changed my mindset.
He said, teddy, you're not everat zero and you will never
(01:06:33):
again be at zero.
He said you probably walkaround at 90 or 95 right now.
So you go on from 90 or 95 to ahundred, just like.
That is pretty reasonable.
He said my goal is to get youwalking around at 75.
He said because if I can getyou down to 75, your quality of
life changes dramatically andthe ripple effect from you
(01:06:57):
getting to 75, that will be feltby your family and the loved
ones that you share time withwill be even more than that, and
the loved ones that you sharetime with will be even more than
that and I I I share that storya lot and I keep that close to
my my heart and my soul becauseit made so much sense.
(01:07:20):
We are so hard on ourselves.
We never give ourselves creditfor how far we've actually come,
and I think it's important tosay those two things to each
other and to yourself.
You know, like, give yourself abreak.
You know great job today orwhat have you, because you know
(01:07:41):
veterans out there, firstresponders, I mean people in
general.
You know we're our worst criticand we have come a long way
just to be where we are.
So why would we not allowourselves to take a little bit
of credit for that andunderstand that life is,
especially right now, is hardand you're doing a good job?
Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
Man, what a great way to wrap this thing up.
Ted Dude, your testimony isridiculous and you've been
through hell and back, obviously, but you're so gracious and
besides wanting to rip that dudeand just stomp his head into
the concrete, I was shocked.
But yeah, dude, you're just anawesome individual.
(01:08:25):
So right now, how wouldsomebody get in touch with your
nonprofit or yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Yeah, so First Coast Heroes is our, is our, our
channels, and heroesoutreachorgis is our Web site.
There's a contact button onthere that'll come to our info
site, or myself, my personalemail is tcolgate first, initial
(01:08:52):
, last name, altogether atheroesoutreach.
Send me a message and I willget back to you within probably
a short amount of time, at leastthat day.
And yeah, I mean, it's just oneof those things that heroes
underscore.
Outreach are Facebook andInstagram, you know, of course,
(01:09:14):
but if you, if you, if youGoogle first coast heroes
outreach but heroes outreachorgis our, is our main channel.
And again, I would be remiss ifI did not say there's a donation
button on there, because it'sone of those things that we try
to be proactive in all thisstuff and a lot of times, if I
(01:09:37):
have the opportunity to goplaces and speak and get that
message out, those costs add upand nobody on Heroes Outreach
takes a salary.
We don't worry about the money.
We're going to continue to dowhat we do, but it does help
offset some of our expenses andit's just one of those where the
(01:10:04):
message is about taking care ofpeople and, you know, being a
good neighbor, being a goodcitizen, being supportive of
those that need it.
And you know, when you walkinto a room or you walk into a
restaurant, understand that ifthere's a hundred people in
there, there's a hundreddifferent struggles going on and
you don't know what those are.
(01:10:25):
And it's okay that you don'tknow what those are, but just
realize that everyone's dealingwith stuff, especially in this
day, and we owe it to ourselvesand we owe it to each other to
try and be as supportive aspossible.
So that's what we're here to do.
Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
Yes, sir, you guys make sure you know you hit the
donate, donate, and I'mdefinitely going to be donating
to an organization like this.
Most organizations, nonprofits,they do have, you know, a board
of individuals where they'redrawing hefty salaries and you
don't really know where themoney's going.
But with this one, by all means, hit that, hit that donate
button.
This guy's phenomenal and,teddy, I hope I can grab you for
(01:11:03):
a few minutes after thispodcast.
But seriously, man, dailyAmerican welcomes you and thanks
you so much for everythingyou're doing for society as a
whole, especially veterans.
Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
I appreciate the opportunity and you know.
Thank you for your platform andcontinue to get that message
out.
Thanks, dan.
Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Yes, sir.
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